What is prognosis? It is important to know what your disease will look like in the future.

When a doctor tells you or someone you know has a certain illness or disease, the first questions that come to mind are: "Doctor, is this serious?", "Will this be completely cured?", "Will I ever be able to live like I used to?". With all this uncertainty in our minds, we all want to know something certain about the future. At such times, the doctor's medical and experience-based prediction of how your condition will progress is called a prognosis .

What is simply a prognosis?

Simply put, a prognosis is a medical prediction about the most likely outcome of your condition. Think of it like a weather forecast. Just as you might say, "There's a 90% chance of rain today," a prognosis is a prediction about what's likely to happen based on past data and the experiences of other patients.

A prognosis can help you find answers to questions like:

• Can my disease be cured?
• Will I be able to recover completely?
• Will my symptoms subside?
• Will I still be able to do my work on my own?
• Is this treatment really worth it?
• How much longer can I live?

Why is it important for you to know this prognosis?

Having some idea of ​​what the future holds for your illness can help you and your caregivers make the best decisions for your life. We can't always stop ourselves from getting sick or having accidents. But having some idea of ​​what might happen next can help us cope better with the things that are beyond our control.

How do doctors determine this prognosis?

Doctors use both data from medical research and their own professional experience to make a prognosis. Medical statistics are often used to determine your prognosis. Researchers observe the experiences of large groups of patients and identify patterns in disease. Knowing what has happened to the majority of people with a disease in the past is very useful in predicting what will happen to someone with that disease now.

The doctor creates a prognosis that is specific to you by collecting your medical condition and data from patients like you.

Prognostic Factors

Doctors also look at several other factors when determining the severity of a disease. While some of these are specific to cancer, many are common to any disease.

• Condition type: The specific type of condition you have can greatly affect your prognosis. Think of cancer. Depending on where it develops in the body (e.g., breast, lung), the outcome can vary greatly.
• Disease progression: When diagnosing a disease, it is important to know how far it has spread in the body. In the case of cancer, its stage is a major factor affecting prognosis.
• Genetic and biological characteristics: Sometimes, things like genetic mutations in diseased cells can give an idea of ​​how aggressive the disease will be.
• Your overall health: If you have more than one medical condition (e.g. diabetes, high blood pressure), sometimes the situation can be a bit more complicated, which affects the prognosis.
• Whether there are effective treatments: If there are effective, efficient treatments for your disease, there is a greater chance that the prognosis will be good.
• How you respond to treatment: If your body responds well to medication and treatment, that's a very good sign.
• Your daily activities:You can get an idea of ​​what's going to happen from things like how much you can do your daily activities on your own, and whether you're confined to bed.
• Other factors: In some diseases, factors such as age, gender, and race can affect the outcome of the disease to some extent.

How does the doctor tell you about the prognosis?

There is no single way to talk about prognosis. The way the doctor talks to you may vary.

Typically, the following methods can explain the prognosis:

• In levels: words like "Excellent", "Good", "Fair", "Poor". This will give you a rough idea of ​​the situation and allow you to start talking about the details.
• As a time range: For example, when talking about how long you have to live, you can give a time range like "three to five years," based on statistics and your own factors.
• Best-case/worst-case scenario: Some people like to be mentally prepared for everything. You can explain it as "best case scenario, this is what happens, worst case scenario, this is what happens."
• Most likely scenario: The doctor may tell you the most likely outcome, saying, "This is what is most likely to happen."

However, it's important to remember that the prognosis can change over time . Your doctor may update the prognosis as new information becomes available, such as how you are responding to treatment.

How do you talk to your doctor about your prognosis?

When we learn that we have a disease, we can feel very helpless. It can feel like the doctor has all the power and all the information. But the truth is, you also have a lot of power in this conversation. Because only you know what is most important to you.

Keep these things in mind when talking to your doctor about your prognosis:

• Be clear about what's most important to you: Do you want to live longer? Be pain-free? Do you want to be able to do your daily activities as usual? Make that clear to the doctor.
• Tell us what you can ask: Sometimes we don't feel like hearing bad news. That's normal. You have every right to say, "Just tell me the details" or "I want to know all the details."
• Tell us how you want to know the information: Do you want the best/worst case scenario, statistics, or just what's most likely to happen?
• If you don't understand, be sure to ask: We may not understand some of the words that doctors use. That's not a shame. Never be afraid to ask, "Doctor, I don't understand that. Can you explain it a little more simply?"

What is the difference between Diagnosis and Prognosis?

These are two words that many people confuse.

Simply remember:

Diagnosis means Discovery , that is, identifying the disease .

Prognosis means prediction , that is, a prediction about the future of the disease.